{"id":71163,"date":"2023-09-26T13:02:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T19:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=71163"},"modified":"2023-09-26T14:47:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T20:47:35","slug":"moving-on-from-substance-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2023\/09\/26\/moving-on-from-substance-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving on from substance abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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YEARS OF GROWTH<\/strong>: Ben Ellard, a civil engineering technology instructor in the construction department at SAIT in Calgary. (Photo by Justin Meniru\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Y<\/span>ears of battling against addiction can change a person. However, many individuals are able to overcome their struggles and use their insight to help others.<\/p>\n

A<\/span>ccording to Daily Commercial News<\/a>, in terms of regular use of drugs and alcohol, 54 per cent of construction workers have more than one drink a week, compared to 47 per cent of Canadian workers. Twenty-one per cent of construction workers use recreational cannabis on a regular basis compared to 15 per cent of workers in other sectors.<\/p>\n

Ben Ellard, an instructor of civil engineering and technology at SAIT, says he hid his addiction during his time as a construction worker as he used it to deal with personal problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was the biggest challenge because I knew I had a drinking problem and when you\u2019re a person with a drug addiction, you don\u2019t always want to give it up,\u201d he said. \u201cDrinking made me happy, drinking took away some of my problems so I did whatever I could to avoid it, like staying at my desk to work harder so I didn\u2019t talk to people as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drinking also affected Ellard’s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can definitely take a look back and see work that I did when I was sober and work that I did when I was drunk,\u201d he said. \u201cOther people would say, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re just having an off day,\u2019 but I didn\u2019t have off days. I was either sober or I was drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jill Drader, an adjunct instructor at SAIT who is also founder and CEO of OWLSEEK, also gave insight into her struggles with addiction during an event at SAIT focused on improving mental health in the trades.\u00a0She says but it can be more difficult for women to find treatment compared to men.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did go through substance use and addiction and I was addicted to alcohol and cocaine for a long time until I got sober in 2006,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s harder to find resources and counselling for women specifically. But now it’s a little bit better and there are peer groups that are really helpful because that was the only place to find people who weren\u2019t hiding behind the stigmas and were able to offer support and resources and help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh, you\u2019re just having an off day\u2019 \u2014 but I didn\u2019t have off days.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From the perspective of someone who used to be a in a construction environment, Ellard gave his opinion on how substance is stigmatized and how he saw a mix of people wanting to hide their addiction but also saw people owning up to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in the construction industry that don\u2019t hide it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd amongst their peers, they are people who don\u2019t mind working with them cause there one of the guys and he\u2019s cool and he gets his job done because he\u2019s high functioning, and they kinda let it slide.<\/p>\n

“And then there are other people that are like, \u2018No man, we don\u2019t do that here, I want to go home safe, and I want you to go home safe, so I\u2019m not gonna work anywhere near you.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellard also experienced being treated differently from his peers when he gave up drinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really, really hard to quit drinking when I was working downtown because there was so much pressure to be treated as part of team,\u201d he said. \u201cIt does take a lot from me to show people that I can be fun just because I don\u2019t drink anymore doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m a party pooper and that makes people think I\u2019m really weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drader reflected on her years of substance abuse and hopes that a brighter future is in store for others that are struggling with substances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have to look at the reason why people are using [substances] on worksites or anywhere and what is that real pain piece and why are people hurting that they feel like they need to self-medicate,\u201d said Drader.<\/p>\n

“So, once we get to the bottom of what people really need to create a life of wellness out of illness then we can work together to build healthy co-operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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PERSONAL INSIGHT<\/strong>: Jill Drader, the founder and CEO of OWLSEEK and adjunct instructor at SAIT in Calgary. (Photo by Justin Meniru\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years of battling against addiction can change a person. However, many individuals are able to overcome their struggles and use their insight to help others. According to Daily Commercial News, in terms of regular use [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":833,"featured_media":71164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Substance Abuse JM","footnotes":""},"categories":[1432,1109],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-71163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business-jobs","8":"category-mental-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/833"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71163"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71429,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71163\/revisions\/71429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}